General Music Chat

Follow up ....

my wife started talking to me after a couple of days ...

The seller took more than a few days to ship it - the guitar came in a huge box 12 days after the audition ended, using old comforters for packing material!
Pulled it out, seemed to have survived the shipping ok. Then I put on my glasses and inspected it.
Scratches in the top surface above the soundhole - not pick marks.
Back had a deep scratch about 3 inches long, and another couple of marks. Side near the strap button/jack had a series of scratches, deep.
OK, I'm not happy - guy had indicated one (only) mark on bottom surface and had sent a picture of that. I found that and it was on the top, not bottom.
So, I plug it in. Snap*Crackle*Pop. Whole preamp was shot - moving the controls brought more crackling, sound occasionally poppping on for a second. Popped open the preamp, just touching it on the sides made more cracklling.
I didn't wait, filed a 'Buyer Protection' case with Ebay right then. Seller sent a message 'what's wrong with the guitar?', I replied, no answer from him, I sent another reply and included close-up photos of all the scratches - Ebay can look at these - evidence! He had 6 days to reply, never did, so I forwarded the case to Ebay to decide, got the return shipping label (their expense) this morning, so I'll get it shipped back this week and get full credit back to my Paypal when it the seller gets it back.

Lesson learned. I still want a Taylor (it actually sounded really good acoustically), but probably won't jump on another Ebay sale real quick! I'll keep saving up my Paypal money.

I would agree with you about the 'shared money', but wife doesn't see it that way. As soon as she got the new job, she blew her last unemployment check on all sorts of stuff, knowing she's be gettng a real paycheck - meantime I had been paying all the bills, got her on my work insurance for another $50 a week deducted from my pay, and not buying anything more for myself than guitar strings for the 6-1/2 months she was collecting and looking for a job.
All the money I used was from the sale of stuff, including the band gear I sold recently, old books, old Circus and Rolling Stone magazines, etc.

Forgot to mention - I just paid $400 for new tires for her car, too.

Are you out of your mind.It's time to say honey we got to have a talk about the balance of power here.Either that or just cut your balls off give them to her and ask permission to take them out every now and then.

Are you out of your mind.It's time to say honey we got to have a talk about the balance of power here.Either that or just cut your balls off give them to her and ask permission to take them out every now and then.

Spoken like a single man (or one from the dark ages)!

Ditto What Mike Said!

Are you out of your mind.It's time to say honey we got to have a talk about the balance of power here.Either that or just cut your balls off give them to her and ask permission to take them out every now and then.

Spoken like a single man (or one from the dark ages)!

There is no dark age nor marital status involved here.You have an unfair balance power,you paid the bills,you put tires on the car,you supplied shelter and food when you where the only lifeline.A check was spent on ,sh*t that even you thought was no so smart.If I want a something that I like and want to own it I discuss it with my wife and if the money is there I get it,she does the same thing and she gets what she wants. Now that's a balance of power and I keep my balls in place so you keep sneaking around buying an item just to hide it,and gonna get caught anyway..lol,lol,man where you at.
Get dem balls back.The guitar does sound very nice though,good luck with it.

There is no dark age nor marital status involved here.You have an unfair balance power,you paid the bills,you put tires on the car,you supplied shelter and food when you where the only lifeline.A check was spent on ,sh*t that even you thought was no so smart.If I want a something that I like and want to own it I discuss it with my wife and if the money is there I get it,she does the same thing and she gets what she wants. Now that's a balance of power and I keep my balls in place so you keep sneaking around buying an item just to hide it,and gonna get caught anyway..lol,lol,man where you at.
Get dem balls back.The guitar does sound very nice though,good luck with it.

Guess you didn't read my original post - I bid on the guitar on ebay, not expecting to win it, but did. The money came from things I had sold on ebay (equipment, books, old Rollling Stones, you name it), not from bill-paying money or my weekly paycheck.
Shipping it back today on Ebay's expense.

why you shipping it back

That sucks . . . I hate waiting in expectation for a disappointment.

It's a bummer.

why you shipping it back

Joe - you've got to learn to read whole threads! Top of this page.

This is why I absolutely will not conduct business through ebay... Its not ebay's fault... its just that you cant trust the sellers.

This is why I absolutely will not conduct business through ebay... Its not ebay's fault... its just that you cant trust the sellers.

I won't / don't . . . but I have a good friend that does so often.
And he gets good deals . . .
If he's gotten shafted in the process, he's never mentioned it to me.

Well the good thing is that Ebay provides buyer protection - they favor the buyer over the seller. They sent me the prepaid UPS sticker to send the guitar back, once it shows as delivered by UPS, the money goes back into my paypal in 3 days.
Most of my ebay purchases have been with legitimate stores (like Music 123) who sell through their ebay store, but I got my Epiphone Dot Studio from a private seller, and it was a good deal - just needed a set up and heavier strings to comabt the inherent intonation issue, $130 compared to the same ones I saw at GC for $200.

Follow up ....

my wife started talking to me after a couple of days ...

The seller took more than a few days to ship it - the guitar came in a huge box 12 days after the audition ended, using old comforters for packing material!
Pulled it out, seemed to have survived the shipping ok. Then I put on my glasses and inspected it.
Scratches in the top surface above the soundhole - not pick marks.
Back had a deep scratch about 3 inches long, and another couple of marks. Side near the strap button/jack had a series of scratches, deep.
OK, I'm not happy - guy had indicated one (only) mark on bottom surface and had sent a picture of that. I found that and it was on the top, not bottom.
So, I plug it in. Snap*Crackle*Pop. Whole preamp was shot - moving the controls brought more crackling, sound occasionally poppping on for a second. Popped open the preamp, just touching it on the sides made more cracklling.
I didn't wait, filed a 'Buyer Protection' case with Ebay right then. Seller sent a message 'what's wrong with the guitar?', I replied, no answer from him, I sent another reply and included close-up photos of all the scratches - Ebay can look at these - evidence! He had 6 days to reply, never did, so I forwarded the case to Ebay to decide, got the return shipping label (their expense) this morning, so I'll get it shipped back this week and get full credit back to my Paypal when it the seller gets it back.

Lesson learned. I still want a Taylor (it actually sounded really good acoustically), but probably won't jump on another Ebay sale real quick! I'll keep saving up my Paypal money.

Be VERY CAREFUL when dealing with Ebay and paypal. My youngest son sold a IPOD on ebay. My wife handled the sale. She is no dummy either. She recieved a notice from a buyer. They sent a fake email from paypal and it looked just like the real thing no reason to be suspicious she shipped the ipod on a friday everything went thru paypal. After not recieving the funds into her account about a week had passed. She contacted paypal and they had never heard of the transaction. Turns out it was a FAKE paypal account and my son lost the $300.00 and the new ipod!

So far I have had good luck with Ebay.

I bought one of my Les Pauls. Crazy as it sounds it came in a soft shell case wrapped in cardboard. I took it out and it was fine. But I was sweating bullets when it arrived.

Thats the only instrument I have bought off of Ebay and it was a good deal money wise, the only reason I took the chance. Most things I get off of there are much smaller things.

I bought and sold a bunch of dirt bike parts thru there a few years ago when my son and I were still racing and never had any issues with Ebay or Paypal, but Im sure there are folks out there trying to scam any good thing.

That sucks Haley!

So far I have had good luck with Ebay.

I bought one of my Les Pauls. Crazy as it sounds it came in a soft shell case wrapped in cardboard. I took it out and it was fine. But I was sweating bullets when it arrived.

Thats the only instrument I have bought off of Ebay and it was a good deal money wise, the only reason I took the chance. Most things I get off of there are much smaller things.

I bought and sold a bunch of dirt bike parts thru there a few years ago when my son and I were still racing and never had any issues with Ebay or Paypal, but Im sure there are folks out there trying to scam any good thing.

That sucks Haley!

Yeah John, I asked my wife someone is going to pay that much for a used ipod. It had very little use and was in like new condition. Still it was used. My wife said yes someone in Pennsylvania wants it. Thats where it was shipped and signed for. The bottom line is if you are selling on ebay go to paypals site yourself and confirm the paypal account number before you ship the item you are selling. I think my wife clicked on the link that the scammer sent. Thats how they got the item. Also if it sounds to good to be true it probably is!